• Waymo on Thursday announced a service area expansion in Austin.
• The move came a few days after Tesla showed off an expanded phallic-shaped geofence.
• Robotaxi fans will find that the service area expansions come with a few limitations.

Tesla and Waymo seem to be duking it out over who has the bigger size — and size in this case refers to the companies' respective robotaxi boundaries in Austin.

Waymo has been offering self-driving rides to the general public for a few months, and Tesla has been testing out rides to a limited number of invitees last month.

Three days after Tesla showed off an expanded, phallic-shaped geofence in Austin, Waymo on Thursday said that it has more than doubled its service area in the city from about 37 square miles to 90 square miles.

The coverage area includes new neighborhoods such as Crestview, Windsor Park, Sunset Valley, Franklin Park, and more, according to Waymo.

Lovers of robotaxis might have to temper Tesla's and Waymo's ability to please — for now.

For Tesla, unless you're one of the handful of people who received an invite from the company or know someone who got an invite, you'll have to wait until the company opens the service up to the broader public.

It's unclear when that will happen. Tesla's latest announcement of the service area expansion didn't mention whether the company was adding more robotaxis on the road or inviting more passengers.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has pledged that the robotaxi service will ramp up quickly.

A Tesla spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Waymo said that the service area expansion will allow more people in Austin to experience a fully autonomous ride.

However, the service is only available through the Uber app, which does not allow users to request a robotaxi. Users can only opt in for the option. This means the app will decide to pair users up with a human driver or a robotaxi, depending on what's available first or what's more time-efficient.

When trying to hail a Waymo in Downtown Austin on Thursday, Business Insider found in repeated tests that Uber will pair users with a human driver when the destination calls for going on the 35 highway or MoPac Expressway.

Waymo currently doesn't take public passengers on the highway.

Chris Bonelli, a spokesperson for Waymo, told BI in an email that a rider will likely be matched with an Uber driver if a more optimal route requires going on the freeway.

Waymo employees are currently taking fully autonomous freeway rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, Bonelli said.

When Business Insider set a closer destination that doesn't require a highway or toll, Uber immediately suggested a Waymo.

A spokesperson for Uber did not respond to a request for comment.

Nick Fuentes dined with Trump and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago in 2022 and supported Trump in the 2024 election—but he ultimately refused to endorse him.

The Minnesota Vikings have been linked to an important roster move before training camp.

President Donald Trump and the media mogul Rupert Murdoch have had a close working relationship for years.

"If Israel feels that a certain leader...is an evident threat to its national security, it will operate," a former Israeli envoy told Newsweek.

President Trump said Thursday he's directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all relevant grand jury testimony in the case of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, subject to court approval.

The big picture: Trump has faced mounting pressure from MAGA circles and elsewhere to take further action since his administration said a review found no evidence that convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Epstein kept a "client list" or that he was murdered.

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Driving the news: "Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!"

• Bondi said in response on X she's "ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts."

Go deeper: DOJ, FBI conclude Epstein had no "client list," died by suicide

Editor's note: This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

The Dallas Cowboys are seeing the pass rusher market move once again, as the Pittsburgh Steelers took care of business with TJ Watt.

The CMT Music Awards 20th Anniversary Special is set to go live on Thursday, hosted by Cody Alan, featuring some of the top country music stars in the business.

New England Patriots legend Rob Gronkowski spoke out boldly about the team's upcoming season.

The NBA Summer League continues from Las Vegas as the Boston Celtics take on Bronny James and their rival, the Los Angeles Lakers, on Thursday night.

With training camp around the corner, the Washington Commanders have reportedly agreed to terms on a rookie deal with their second-round corner, Trey Amos.

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" will end in May 2026, Colbert and CBS announced on Thursday.

The Chicago Cubs have a few big decisions to make. In the coming weeks, the Cubs' roster could begin to take a different shape.

Organizers started a fundraiser to put a photo of Trump and Epstein up "everywhere" before Trump visits the UK in September.

How do people around the NFL view the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, Jalen Hurts? An NFL Insider recently spoke on the state of the debate regarding Hurts.

The president threatened to sue The Wall Street Journal over its report on a letter sent to Jeffrey Epstein on the sex offender's 50th birthday.

President Trump's firing of Democratic FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter was illegal, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

Why it matters: The White House says it will appeal the decision, which will set up a Supreme Court challenge.

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• Conservatives have long been trying to tee up a case that would weaken a precedent that has protected independent agency commissioners.
• Trump fired Slaughter and fellow Democratic commissioner Alvaro Bedoya in March. They both sued the administration shortly after, and Bedoya resigned from the FTC in June.

What they're saying: Judge Loren L. Alikhan wrote that the "attempt to remove Ms. Slaughter from her position as an FTC Commissioner did not comply with the FTC Act's removal protections."

• "Because those protections remain constitutional, as they have for almost a century, Ms. Slaughter's purported removal was unlawful and without legal effect."
• "As the Court recognized today, the law is clear, and I look forward to getting back to work," Slaughter said in a statement. "The for-cause removal protections that apply to my colleagues and me at the FTC also protect other independent economic regulators like the SEC, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve."

The other side: "The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the President's constitutional authority to fire and remove executive officers who exercise his authority," said White House spokesman Kush Desai.

• "The Trump Administration will appeal this unlawful decision and looks forward to victory on this issue."

• You've probably seen the Coldplay "kiss cam" moment that has ricocheted around the internet.
• A tech CEO and his head of HR appear to embrace, then look mortified after seeing themselves on cam.
• I wish I didn't know anything about any of this — I wish none of us did.

I don't want to know what you did at a Coldplay concert. I don't want to know who you were there with, what the track list was. I don't even want to know you went!

And if it turns out that you were caught on camera in a passionate embrace with a coworker? I mean, sure, I'm curious. I love gossip! But I'm not sure I should know about that. And that goes double if I don't know you in real life.

On Thursday, as I'm sure you know by now, a "kiss cam" video went viral from a Coldplay concert outside Boston on Wednesday night. In the clip, two audience members stand against a railing, the man with his arms around the woman. They look to be in their late 40s or early 50s, fit and attractive, enjoying the musical stylings of arguably Britain's greatest rock act of the 21st century.

As soon as they realize they're on the Jumbotron, the woman turns to hide her face, and the man ducks. You overhear front-man Chris Martin say into the microphone, "Either they're having an affair, or they're just very shy."

Yikes!

The clip appeared to show Astronomer CEO Andy Byron embracing the company's head of HR, Kristin Cabot. Neither has commented on the clip.

I'm not sure how people online figured out who these people were. Was it by using a controversial facial-recognition tool like PimEyes? Or was it from someone who knows them in real life who identified them?

The thing is, I don't know these people. (Neither, probably, do you.) I don't know their lives. I have no idea what was really going on. Astronomer execs, board members, and founders haven't returned BI's requests for comment, as my colleagues Madeline Berg and Tim Paradis report.

I can say that the online attention they've received is certainly distressing to them — on top of a situation that may also already be very distressing in other ways.

The issue might have some legs from an HR standpoint: If a company CEO is embracing his head of personnel at a concert, could that raise some issues? Sure! That's for the company and its execs to figure out. But otherwise, who cares? I don't.

I just spent almost every day of the last six weeks watching some of the most depraved people on Earth frolic around in swimwear and occasionally hump under thick duvets on "Love Island." I'm not going to suddenly go morality police to say that two Coldplay-loving consenting adults is the biggest scandal I can imagine.

And, to me, there's a potentially unsettling element of potential surveillance. As 404 Media wrote:

The same technologies used to dox and research this CEO are routinely deployed against the partners of random people who have had messy breakups, attractive security guards, people who look "suspicious" and are caught on Ring cameras by people on Nextdoor, people who dance funny in public, and so on. There has been endless debate about the ethics of doxing cops and ICE agents and Nazis, and there are many times where it makes sense to research people doing harm on behalf of the state or who are doing violent, scary things in to innocent people.

It is another to deploy these technologies against random people you saw on an airplane or who had a messy breakup with an influencer.

Again, we're not sure what happened here or how these people were apparently identified. But I don't think it's any of our business — barring something illegal — what happens at a concert. Could it violate a company's rules? Yes, but then the company can deal with it.

By the way: Why the heck does Coldplay have a kiss cam, anyway?

• Donald Trump has complained about media companies making movies outside the US.
• Netflix just emphasized how much of its production happens in the US.
• Coincidence?

Donald Trump, who frequently complains about media companies, doesn't appear to be angry at Netflix at the moment.

Netflix would like to keep it that way.

Which may explain why the company spent a bit of time in its latest earnings report talking up its commitment to making its shows and movies in America.

In the streamer's second quarter earnings report, Netflix officials made a point of emphasizing how much money it has spent making content in the US — $125 billion between 2020 and 2024 — and how much more it plans to spend in the near future — including new production facilities in New Mexico and New Jersey.

Does that have anything to do with the confusing announcement Trump made in May, when he vowed to slap a "100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands?" A Netflix rep declined to comment.

But you can check out the language the company used in its shareholder letter for yourself:

As we grow globally, our most significant investment remains in the US, which accounts for the majority of our content spend, workforce and production infrastructure. From 2020-2024, we estimate that we contributed $125 billion to the US economy. Our expansion in Albuquerque, NM—adding four new soundstages to a 108-acre site—and our plan to invest roughly $1B to develop a state-of-the-art production facility (including 12 new soundstages) in Fort Monmouth, NJ, underscore our ongoing commitment to production in the US.

This isn't the first time Netflix has played up its interest in US production. That statement above includes a link to a report spelling out its investment in the US, which was published April 23 — less than a couple weeks before Trump came out with its Hollywood tariff plan.

And Netflix also discussed its US investments in its previous earnings report, which came out on April 17. But the language it used there was much lighter on superlatives, and much less America-centric. Compare and contrast:

While the majority of our content spend and production infrastructure investment is in the US, we now also spend billions of dollars per year making programming abroad. And instead of just licensing local titles, we're now making local shows and films in many countries, commissioned by our local executives, that keep our members happy. And our local slates are improving each year.

If Netflix is trying to please Trump or his circle via corporate messaging, they wouldn't be the first company to do so. In May, for instance, cable/broadband giant Charter went out of its way to describe its plan to acquire Cox as an explicitly pro-American move.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, by the way, has said he had a "nice long dinner" with Trump in December at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, prior to Trump's second inauguration. "He said Melania and [son] Barron were big fans," Sarandos said.

A new Morning Consult poll found Collins' approval at a "record low."